Contents

As a monk, he tried to reach enlightenment through asceticism and hardships. He treated his task of recovering holy relics from around the world as a pilgrim's ordeal.[2]

When the Church first interfered with the ritual in Fuyuki during the Third Holy Grail War in the 1930s, held on the eve of World War II. They sent Risei who was not far from his twenties and he was in charged with the role of supervisor. While there, he became friends with the then-current head of the Tohsaka family and has maintained deep ties with the Tohsaka ever since.[2]

His son Kirei Kotomine was born on the 28th December 1967 and thanks to his pious worship, Kirei was gifted with Magic Circuits from the divine sacrament.[3] Because of Risei, Kirei had been working diligently as an Executor-in-training since an early age.[4] He is responsible for teaching bajiquan to Kirei, and his skill far outstrips his son.[2]

He is 80 years old during in Fourth Holy Grail War, despite his advanced age, his physique is still very muscular like Mas Oyama. Risei's face resembles like an older Steven Seagal.[5] He gives of the appearance of an old soldier better suited to wearing a samurai costume in the Warring States era than a priest's cassock.[1]

He is a close associate with Tokiomi Tohsaka, actively supporting him and conspiring to ensure that Tokiomi will obtain the Holy Grail in the war, despite the fact that as a member of the Church, he should be ensuring only someone who is worthy of the a powerful artifact like the Grail should be obtaining it.

While he is proud of his son, who has demonstrated himself to be a perfect heir, Risei fails to understand Kirei in any sense. He believes that his son, who has recently lost his wife of two years, may be able to find some purpose in life again by aiding Tokiomi during the Holy Grail War.

Risei sympathizes with Shirou Kotomine as he had devoted his entire life to the Lord, only to find tragedy in his end. When he learnt that Shirou wants to find something new for himself, Risei would be willing to sacrifice everything. Risei was never one to mourn over loss of wealth and willingly to provide Shirou with social status and funding. However, Shirou lied to Risei about giving up on pursuing the Greater Grail and ironically he also did not understand his foster son true nature.

Both Risei and Tokiomi, upon discovering that Kirei's command mantra had appeared three years before the start of the war, both came to believe that Kirei was destined to provide Tokiomi with an additional Servant and associated command spells for the upcoming war. Without informing Kirei as to the true nature of the mark that appeared, they transfer Kirei from the Church to the Mages Association as Tokiomi's pupil. Neither man reveals to Kirei that he can also obtain the Holy Grail, instead telling the young man that he is performing a mission for the Church.

He was involved with Tokiomi's plan to stage Assassin's death so that the other Masters perceive Kirei and Assassin had been defeated, and allowed the dozens of remaining Assassins to move freely without suspicion. He pretended to provide Kirei a place of refuge while Kirei provide support in the shadows.

As Risei conspires with Tokiomi, they eventually come to see that Caster and his Master prove to be too erratic and threaten Tokiomi's chances of winning the war. To this end, they arrange for Risei to offer additional command spells to the Master who manages to defeat Caster and his Master.

Risei's dead body

After Caster's defeat, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi approached Risei to obtain additional command spells. After Risei reluctantly gives what Lord El-Melloi has come for, the Master shoots Risei and leaves him to die in order to implicate Kiritsugu Emiya as the murderer. As he dies, Risei leaves behind a message containing a secret password that will provide his son with all the remaining command spells Risei could give out. Kirei arrives to find his father dead and his father's final parting gift, and comes to the conclusion that Risei died trying to protect him. Though Kirei sheds tears realizing his father cared about him till the end, he finds himself feeling the same feelings he felt when his wife died - the desire to have seen them die.

There were only two survivors on the field of battle. Risei stood next to the Einzbern's servant, the Ruler-class Amakusa Shirou Tokisada. Risei knew Shirou's true identity and he spoke to him in a way befitting his name. Risei questions Shirou's plan after the war and although he is clearly greater in both age and stature, he was quite nervous in front of Shirou. Shirou considers going on a journey when he remembers Risei mentioning about his journey in order to find enlightenment. Risei delighted from his reply, he offered to help Shirou. Risei prepared a family register for him and the boy gained a new identity as his son “Kotomine Shirou”.[6] True to his words, he traveled the world as the foster child of Risei. With the help of Risei, Shirou obtained a place within the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament. He entered the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament as Kotomine Shirou, but naturally Risei couldn’t acknowledge him as his son there and approached him honestly as a friend. Around the time when Risei’s son Kirei was born, Shirou had deliberately diminished his contact with Risei.[6] Risei has told Kirei the true identity of Shirou.[7]

Since there was no fear of a Fourth Holy Grail War, Riser appeared to have been able to live somewhat longer here, but he has already died from disease before the start of the “Apocrypha” novels. His funeral was the last time that his son Kirei and Shirou met.[6]

Risei is a practitioner of bajiquan, but he does not utilize it actively in order to kill targets like his son engaging Dead Apostles. He is not an Executor, so he uses it as a form of self-discipline and meditation. He only trains with the goal of being able to fight rather than with the goal of being able to kill, so Kirei uses it in gruesome battles more often than him.[2]

He, as the supervisor of the Holy Grail War, has a large number of Command Spells recollected from the previous Holy Grail Wars as the inheritance of the Masters who lost their Servants before the final battle. All Command Seals not used in time are entrusted to him and left to his judgement as the one presiding over the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Risei's command seals

While their existence can already be called a kind of miracle possessing enormous power, they are still a form of exhaustible physical enchantment. This allows them to be transplanted or transferred through incantations. He is able to reserve Command Seals to anyone based upon his own judgement, allowing Masters renew more control over their Servants. The process only requires him to trace the faded marks of the used Command Seals and transfer his own to replace them. The process doesn't come with any pain like receiving them from the Grail, and it only takes a few minutes to complete.

The Command Spells managed by the supervisor are protected by holy prayers and may only be transferred through his permission, so it not possible to seize them through the use of thaumaturgy. Even after Risei's death, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi is unable to take them. Only those who know the secret holy words, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth——" from John 4:24, are able to utilize them. Risei leaves the letters "jn424" transcribed in blood, so that it looks to be a secret message of unknown meaning to those not of the Christian faith. Kirei is able to identify it immediately, and upon speaking it, they are transferred one by one while accompanied by dull pain.

His original design concept was "an older Steven Seagal".[2] Risei has the same eyebrows and mussed mullet as his son, joked as being the Kotomine clan Sorcery Trait. Takashi Takeuchi said that even with his cleft chin, makes him look like a character from Ninja Scroll, he "feels like a genuine Japanese person."
[1]

Comment for RiseiTakeuchi: Drawing muscles is fun. He's Kotomine's honored father, so his eyebrows and his mussed mullet are in the same style. Is it a Kotomine clan Sorcery Trait?Urobuchi: For some reason, he seems like an old soldier who would not be out of place even if he time slipped to the Warring States Era. This guy would absolutely look better in something like a samurai costume than in a priest's cassockTakeuchi: That's right. For some reason, he feels like a genuine Japanese person, but... No, even with his perfectly cleft chin.Urobuchi: Because it looks like something from Ninja Scroll, characters with cleft chins are completely okay!

Risei Kotomine [Person's name]
Kotomine Kirei's father. A priest in the Holy Church's Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament.
When the Church first interfered with the ritual in Fuyuki during the Third Holy Grail War, he was charged with the role of supervisor. While there, he became friends with the then-current head of the Tohsaka family (Tokiomi's father), and has maintained deep ties with the Tohsaka ever since.
As a monk, he tried to reach enlightenment through asceticism, and he treated his task of recovering holy relics from around the world as a pilgrim's ordeal. He is a master of baji quan, and as the person responsible for teaching it to Kirei, his skill far outstrips his son's. As for precisely what kind of monster he is, well, just look at his burly, Mas Oyama-like physique and let your imagination run wild. His original design concept was "an older Steven Seagal".
However, Risei trained his fists solely for the sake of self-discipline and his search for truth. As he was never an "executor", he has no knowledge of killing arts that focus on the act of battle itself. Consequently, when it comes to things like trading blows with Dead Apostles, his son Kirei is much more accomplished. And of course, he isn't a magus, so superhuman magical martial arts like Kirei's are totally out of the question too.
Nevertheless, Kirei was probably acutely aware that as far as "orthodox baji quan" goes, his father was a better fighter than he was. What the old man had sought after all his life had been a realm beyond mere "killing arts", and through his long and outstanding career he had finally reached it.
It's too bad that he was unceremoniously removed from the stage by a single bullet before this inspiring history could even be hinted at in the story proper.
He must have been quite a sight back when he was young, during the Third Holy Grail War. Yes, definitely.

[v] TYPE-MOON Fes.Official Pamphlet 10th Anniversary Q & A Booklet:Q: Kirei's wife Ortensia is covered with wounds in the design draft, is it because she has a body similar to Caren's? Also, Command Spells appeared on Kirei due to the fact that he somehow possesses Magic Circuits despite being born in a non-magus lineage. Does this mean Caren also has Magic Circuits?

Q: Kirei's wife Ortensia is covered with wounds in the design draft, is it because she has a body similar to Caren's? Also, Command Spells appeared on Kirei due to the fact that he somehow possesses Magic Circuits despite being born in a non-magus lineage. Does this mean Caren also has Magic Circuits?

A: Kirei's wife is an albino, and is immunodeficient. As a result, she can die from even a tiny wound, thus her body appears tattered. What Caren inherited is the aspect of "prone to be plagued by illnesses". This is truly an ordeal given by God.About the Magic Circuits, a normal person rarely acquires Magic Circuits. You can consider such cases sudden mutations. However, Kirei is not of this type. Kirei's Circuits were a gift from the divine sacrament, rewarding his father Risei's years of pious worship. Kirei was born with "the right to recreate the miracles in the divine sacrament". This "right", in other words, was the Magic Circuits. Caren did not inherit the Circuits.

Q: Regarding Kotomine Kirei's life, could you disclose more details? Such as at what age did he graduate from the seminary, and at what age did he become an Executor.

A: Because of his father, Risei, Kotomine had been working diligently as an Executor-in-training since an early age. He entered the seminary at the age of 22. In the same year, he received a second baptism to graduate from a trainee to a full Executor who could operate independently. However, while performing his duty of judging heretics, he married. Kotomine voluntarily left his position in the seminary, and abandoned the path of becoming an official priest. After the death of his wife, he worked for the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, concentrating on training as an Executor. At the age of 28, he lost his father Risei, and was given the position of a priest, albeit unofficially.

Risei Kotomine [Person's name]
The person that the Holy Church dispatched to the Holy Grail War during the Third War in Fuyuki. He was assigned as the moderator of the war. However, the Greater Grail was stolen during the Third War, and despite being the moderator he reluctantly intervened into the situation and rescued the Master of the Tohsaka, who he was friends with. In the midst of that, the Einzbern Servant, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, helped him with his rescue work.
As thanks, Riser prepared a family register for him after he gained a flesh body, registering him as his son “Kotomine Shirou”.
He entered the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament as Kotomine Shirou, but naturally Risei couldn’t acknowledge him as his son there and approached him honestly as a friend. Around the time when Risei’s son Kirei was born, Shirou had deliberately diminished his contact with Risei.
Since there was no fear of a Fourth Holy Grail War, Riser appeared to have been able to live somewhat longer here, but he has already died from disease before the start of the “Apocrypha” novels. His funeral was the last time that his son Risei and Shirou met.

Kirei Kotomine [Person's name]
Without needing to be introduced, he is the man who appears as the villain in “Fate/stay night” and “Fate/Zero” (though his mentality is quite complex). He doesn’t appear at all in these novels, but hints of his existence are shown here and there, so he has an entry here.
Kotomine Kirei is living as an extremely respectable priest in Fuyuki even now. The Fourth Holy Grail War didn’t occur here, so he didn’t shift his focus to his own nature. It might be a different story if he participated in one of the subspecies Holy Grail Wars, but he’ll never have such a chance as long as he is in Fuyuki.
In other words, he is still in anguish over the meaning and karma of his existence even now.
He heard about who his older brother Shirou is from his father Risei, but they have rarely interacted with each other. This is not done on Kirei’s part, but rather because Shirou consciously avoids him.
This is because Shirou noticed the “distortion” within his stepbrother Kirei. Of course, he would very much like to free Kirei from his anguish, but no matter how he thought about it, it wouldn’t end well… Additionally, if the one-in-a-million chance occurred where an event caused him to affirm his own distortion, Shirou was greatly worried that the first person Kirei would target would be him.
It would be like pouring gasoline on a volcano that’s on the verge of erupting even now. Thus, Shirou kept his distance from Kirei as much as possible from the beginning to end of their relationship.